Aging devices for musical instruments made of wood have been known. For example, one of such devices is designed so that, in a structure that defines a box-shaped storage space and has a surrounding composite wall formed by sandwiching a thermal insulation filling material that has humidity buffering and sound insulation and absorption and that is cellulose insulation made from fiber and granular material or materials having equivalent properties thereto with air contained therein between an inner wall material having moisture permeability and a sound absorption coefficient that does not emphasize standing waves dependent on internal dimensions and an outer wall material that is a wood-based material with waterproof breathability and sound insulation or another material having equivalent properties thereto, and an openable and closeable door made of a wall material having equivalent properties to the composite wall, this device has a heater that keeps the temperature of the interior space higher than the outside, and plays music using an acoustic apparatus in the interior space to apply acoustic excitation while a wooden musical instrument, an object or product made of a natural plant or animal material, or the like is placed in the interior space.
Please see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2011-22546.
Historical Overview of Violins
It is a well-known fact that many violins and other stringed musical instruments made in Cremona, in the north of Italy, from the second half of the 17th century through the 18th century have been played by successive virtuosos and are still capturing the ears and hearts of modern people without fading away over more than 300 years. Specifically, violins made by Stradivari are called Stradivarius, and violins made by Guarneri are called Guarneri del Gesu. It is said that more exquisite instruments than the violins made by these two people would never, ever appear. Although Stradivari made about 2000 violins in his life, about 600 violins currently exist, and among them, about a hundred and several tens of violins are actually used in concerts. Then, how about the other four hundred and several tens of violins? They are exhibited in world-famous museums and memorial halls, kept in safes of public facilities, and owned as collections by the rich.
However, many instrumentalists reminisce that it took many years to tune violins that had been stored without being played at all for several hundred years, to sound as great as the original one. In view of this, nobody can say for certain that no problem would occur if exquisite instruments like Stradivarius and Guarneri del Gesu are stored only under controlled temperature and humidity.
Characteristic Structures of Violins
Many books about violins say “the violin is a musical instrument closest to the human voice” in common. The body of the violin is called a resonator and produces a unique resonance frequency through the f-hole in the front plate. With respect to full handmade violins, it is very difficult (impossible actually) to create exactly the same resonators. It means that, not only violins but also stringed instruments each have different characteristic sounds. The most unique structure of violins is a sound post, which is a pine pole of about 6 mm in diameter, between the front and back plates. The sound post has a function of amplifying vibrations of the front and back plates although it is not fixed using an adhesive agent. It is also known that a subtle difference in the location of the sound post totally differentiates sounds and vibrancy. The ideal location of the sound post in a violin is to be determined by the experiences of both a violin maker and an excellent violin player. Each component including a thin long strip called a bass bar, which is fitted to the back side of the front plate, and the front and back plates curved in arch shape does not have a complicated structure, but these components are so designed as to produce the best resonance, once assembled into a musical instrument like a violin.
Characteristics of Violins as Musical Instruments
A book, “Truth and Untruth of Stradivarius, SEKAIBUNKA PUBLISHING INC.” written by Muneyuki Nakazawa, a world renowned violin repair technician, says that “a violin composed of about 55 components is a creature made of materials most of which are organic,” on pages 56 to 57. Not only violin makers feel violins as creatures, but also many instrumentalists who play exquisite instruments for the first time feel such admiration unanimously. That is, it is not too much to say that violins, which are said to be exquisite instruments, are able to fulfill their lives as creatures by being played by virtuosos. However, looking around the world, hundreds of exquisite violins are just stored under controlled temperature and humidity in dark cases like coffins, as if they are almost dead. Therefore, there are in fact many instrumentalists who recall that if such a violin is lucky to be given to a virtuoso tens or hundreds years later, it would take a considerable amount of time for the exquisite instrument to get back the same sounds as when it was made.